@@papaoxd I don't think so, because Bach influenced every composer after him, maybe without him we wouldn't have a Mozart as we know, or Beethoven as we know today, I may be wrong tho lol.
Bach believed music was meant for the glory of God. King David said in the psalms to play skillfully and Bach seems to have taken it to heart. He seemed to have an innate intimate knowledge of every instrument he wrote for. The way he used different instruments in each cello suite ending with the viocello demonstrates this masterfully. The more I listen to him the more I am convinced it is the greatest music ever composed by a man.
Very true! It actually started with King David. Luther translated the bible some 2000 years later, rediscovered David's psalms and that we should sing and make music to the glory of God. Then Luther wrote his famous hymns. Roughly 150 years later Bach studied all of Luther's works and the rest is history. In a nutshell: King David > Luther > Bach > Mozart to Beethoven, etc. > Chopin to Wagner, etc. > Modern Music.
@dejuren First of all, I really like the term "Godlover", I shall use it to describe myself more often. Second of all, we claim him because we have him, and any attempt to steal him will be an uphill battle. No simple exaltation of the human mind could result in the passions or the cantatas
@@DerPinguim oh but don’t you know, according to the wokery all the bad in the world is the fault of white Christian heterosexual men, from slavery and famines to climate change and social injustice 🙄 How does the greatest Genius the world will ever see dare to be a devoted Christian, a family Man, a sexually normal one, and white on top on that!!! How dare He?!?!?! Only evil and horrible things must come from “white” Christian culture, how dare you claiming otherwise! 🤣🤣🤣 Like I told some other tool around here, the second more ridiculous thing that they do after trying to tarnish Bach’s sublime body of Work and beliefs is trying to outwoke one another with their infantile, uneducated and nonsensical claims. It is truly as hysterical as it is surreal. That’s modern ‘education’, the future seems to be in good hands 😂
@@DerPinguim Very well stated. As Bach himself said, “All music should be for the glory of God and the edification of the soul.” Or, something close to that, as I recall.
He had 20 children. Some died early. Just imagine being this productive while having to deal with the noise of these. He had only small places to compose his music. He made money to barely feed his family. He did much teaching while composing. He joined an event to compete with Marchand, who was well known back then. Marchand was very self confident to challenge all composers of his time, he thought none understands music better than him. But the day before the event he heard Bach improvising some Cembalo. Marchand literally left the city to not embarrass himself.There is much more to tell about Bach.
20 children + up to 100 students + 3 ensembles (70-80 musicians+singers). On top of that he wrote one cantata per week for 3 whole years. Bach basically ran a family business which had to fulfill a contract he signed with the city council to provide music and education - easily the busiest composer in history.
When I was a teenager I was into rock music. My friend's father had a classical record collection. One afternoon we pulled out one at random to play. It was the Brandenburg concertos, and the first one was number two. We were both blown away by it, and to this day it is still my favorite piece of music ever! Ive loved bach for decades since!
I kinda imagine how that was, I was really into metal until I listened the andante from the fourth brandenburg concerto, until that day I have never heard even a 10% of what music was capable of doing, it was like realizing for the first time that this is just a planet in a galaxy filled with millions like it in a cosmos that is filled with millions of galaxies
@ericlopez6866 It's not a form, it's a style. But anyway, it really is a ridiculous statement: the amount of musical forces that were regularly moved during the late-romantic and modern periods of classical music make the average baroque piece a pale resemblance of the same art. And surely there were some composers well ahead and beyond their time, like Bach and especially Mozart, but still a quite good composer for his era like Saint-Saëns completely annihilates another one of the baroque period like Buxtehude
@@pe-peron8441 A thesaurus comes in handy sometimes to prevent making a fool of yourself. Call it what you will make any comparisons you like, Baroque is still the best.
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 His pious dedication to god, the way his abilities and contributions far outstripped his contemporaries in a way Einstein never did, the forward thinking attitude about the long future and legacy ahead, the huge body of work, their connections to royalty, and the way they inexplicably appeared so early in the development of their respective fields, unparalleled for generations. We worship at the shrine of Newton in physics today the same way as we treat Bach, Einstein doesn’t get that treatment, given that he lived at the same time as incomparable physicists like Paul Dirac and Niels Bohr.
Bach was the one who got me into classical music, in my early twenties. Back then, I was listening to Death Metal and Aliencore etc. Would have never guessed it before that, but the beauty of the music just pulled me in and then there was no way back. Although my favorite composer as of today, is Beethoven, I'd still put Bach on top, of being the most influential composer. For pure harpsichord or cantatas, I'd always choose Bach. For dramatic Symphonies (With the exception of Mozart's 40th), Lieder (Schubert deserves a spot in this category alongside Beethoven) and beautiful String Quartets, I'd choose Beethoven. For joyful and happy piano works, as well as operas, I'd choose Mozart. The list can go on, Chopin for beautiful, yet complex, Nocturnes and Etudes. Liszt for completely crazy piano pieces, as well as really interesting harmonic elements (e.g. his use of the Hungarian Minor Scale).
Sometimes I put put on a classical playlist and something will come up that really piques my interest and it’s almost always Bach. And every time I’m like “This is Bach, too?!”
I heard a tape with Bach's organ works in 1994 and I used it as a background to studying. One day I turned my head and I asked myself:"what is this?" And the more I listened the more I liked it. It was one of the few moments in my life I felt shivers listening to music. Bach isn't just music for adults, Bach is music for musicians ❤️
It is pretty telling that humanity as a whole needed a hundred years to appreciate him but giants as Mozart and Beethoven understood his greatness right away. Beethoven making a wordplay with Bachs name ("Bach" meaning small stream or brook in german) once said: "Not Bach, but ocean he should have been named for his infinite, inexhaustible richness in tone combinations and harmonies"
I've felt that the long public indifference to Bach says a lot about the pointlessness of many aspects of music discussion. All the music acts of today that get dismissively brushed aside might eventually be recognized as great music. I doubt that many will, but it's still possible!
only when my daughter started learning violin on higher level that I began to appreciate Bach... I have now close to a dozen recordings of his violin sonatas and partitas and each player gave me totally different experience... his music touched people's souls in different ways
When I was in high school our music teacher played the class a recording of the Brandenburg concerto No. 1. I felt like I was hearing music for the first time. I've loved the music of Bach ever since. I enjoy listening to all kinds of music from the earliest of early music, to jazz, classical, pop. But if I could only take one type of music with me to a desert island it would be the music of J.S. Bach. No competition. There is so much in his music that it can reveal something new with each new hearing of it. He was such a gifted man and his music is wonderful.
Bach is the composer that every piano student at any level studies regularly, and the keyboard works conceived for harpsichord and clavichord are not even his most important works, great as they are. Bach was not the first great master, but it almost seems that he was because every major composer after him was influenced profoundly by his works. There is no other composer, not even Beethoven, whose soul encompasses as vast a space as Bach’s.
@@hoon_sol It’s interesting that you bring up this work. Although it wasn’t specifically written for any instrument, it can be, and is, played on organ, harpsichord, and now, piano. I don’t tend to think of it as a specifically keyboard work, given the notation of parts in separate clefs, unlike the works for harpsichord. Still, your observation definitely gives weight to his use of the keyboard in his greatest works extending beyond the vocal genres, which were probably the most important to the composer.
The Well-Tempered Clavier is sometimes called "The Old Testament of keyboard playing" for a reason. It's that influential. And like most keyboard players, I've been chipping away at it for 25 years and still finding new nuances and moments that make my theory brain go "How the heck does that work?"
Bach is truly the God of music. Lesser men bow before him. I've been listening to him since my early 20s and I STILL find new stuff that just blows my mind when I first hear it. This guy just had an almost infinite encyclopedia of just brilliant sounds swimming in his head, which he wrote all down before it scattered to the winds of his mind. (While teaching teenage boys AND conducting orchestras AND being the leading organist of his town AND being forced to write one cantata a week AND siring and raising 20 children AND living with all of that in a small house on a rather meagre income. The stress of all of this didn't overwhelm Bach--he just kept composing like a boss until he keeled over!) Thankfully he didn't die prematurely like so many musical geniuses. The result--over 1,000 works of breathtaking sonority and complexity. I have yet to hear something bad from this guy. Bach's the real deal, the Big Enchilada of sound.
"In November of 1705, the twenty-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach was granted leave from his post at Arnstadt to journey some 200 miles to Lübeck in order to “learn one thing and another about his art” from famed organist Dieterich Buxtehude." That sums it up to me.
Thank you for this video! His music 🎶 is truly something else. Otherworldly, indeed! His is my favorite composer and his music 🎼 like a gift 🎁 from Heaven to all humanity! Again, thank you 🙏 and May God bless you and your loved ones!
I think until now I've been afraid of the beauty of classical music. It could overwhelm a person. But I'm slowly dipping my feet and getting in that pool forever.
To this day I play the first cello suite, BWV 1007, at least five days a week on my guitar. Plus about 30 more minutes of various Bach pieces. Thank You JS Bach. And thank You too Pablo Casals:)
You have to admit it, he was one of the first "BIG" masters to set the trend and the pace that developed into the music we have today. I could not, in my wildest nightmares, imagine my life without the music invented by this man and those Greats that came after him. What would the world be like without it?
Yes, if the history of composing just stopped after JS Bach, we still had everything that's important in music. He was a such universal genius. Nobody comes near to him.
I absolutely agree that Bach, Beethoven and Mozart are the three classical music masters that no listener can overlook, since their work has shaped irrevocably the genre and set the basis for numerous other composers, and I understand and praise the purpose of this video. Nevertheless, I still can't comprehend why so many people argue energetically as to who of them is the greatest, pointing such silly and void arguments, when they forget that music, like any other form of art, is not an exact science, and that much of their opinion is merely based on personal taste. There are so many other enormously influential composers that are often forgotten in such discussions: Palestrina, Monteverdi, Handel, Telemann, Haydn, Schubert, the list goes on. I think it's about time we, the listeners, leave all this bias behind and start appreciating music for what it is, not for which composer wrote it. There are people who will never like Bach, as much as there are those who will never like Beethoven: let's all come together and agree on how great and necessary classical music is. As long as this useless debate is dragged on, I don't see the genre getting rid of its elitism and inaccessibility to the wider public. Let's not make it too complex, and just follow the flow of music 🎵 Cheers 😁
my favorite part about bach is how all the different lines talk to each other, he does it so often and so trickily. One of the pieces you had in the video was wachet auf, and the first movement has so many times where the voices chase each other around. I'm glad you included actus tragicus too because that's actually a rather unusual one and much more modal (he wrote it when he was like 22), but it's still beautiful
The greatest composition lesson I've ever discovered is the fact that Bach left parallel 5ths in his incomplete Art of Fugue. Giving this some thought reveals something quite simple about "how" he constructed his counterpoint. Glenn Gould points out " of course he would've corrected it given the chance", and therein lies the clue.
That's very interesting. I probably would've assumed that it was a case of breaking convention or simple pragmatism. The iron clad rules about parallel perfect consonances weren't as ironclad as we often think them to be now, as far as I know (of course they were ubiquitous practise, but there are examples of deliberate breach even from prominent musicians I think). Do you point to him making a sort of rough draft intended for revisions or what do you reference with Goulds quote?
One can find parallel fifths here and there throughout his works. The "rule" forbidding such a thing is hogwash and indicative of a shallow pedagogy where teachers don't want to take the time to properly teach the use of parallel fifths. It is rare, because of the intervals strength, which can bring too much attention, but when it is used carefully it works fine.
He’s the best and fully deserves to be known as such, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. I’ve learned SO much from him that I wouldn’t even know where to start.
I am a simple organ player that like to play music of Bach. I can not play these terrible Trio Sonatas but I can do a lot of Preludes/Fugues/Concertos and when playing these I get elevated, out of the world, only music in heavenly sound. After I'm done it takes several minutes to calm down and feeling gravity again. This is what Bach's music does to me and I love it.
JSB is the greatest of all time - his greatest works are the musical expression of mathematics as applied to the human condition. In a sense, his music is where math meets art, resulting in something of extraordinary beauty . Bach's music, more than that any other composer, captures the extreme highs and lows of the human condition and everything in between - which is odd because he compositions follow a very structured and methodical manner. It's as if he accessed the source code of all of human experience and then used that knowledge to write his music. It makes one question his doubts regarding divine intervention! Surely his music is a huge step up from the LOSER TRASH music of Drake and the like in our time!
Apart from your amazing skill to synthesise so intelligently, so witty and precise … such a “god-like creature” … I’m sincerely impressed by how utterly moving some of your contemplations are … I mean really : “greatest teacher” - “… took a while to be appreciated” - “the influence is incalculable” - “not just a musical genius, but a master of expressiveness” - “bach didn’t write opera’s, but he never needed to” - “a profound study of human spirituality, the human condition, a contemplation of death” - “Bach is a composer you keep coming back to” - “Whenever you hear him again, he keeps getting better” - “no other composer has a musical mind as profound and accomplished” - Bewildering complexity” - “the most intense and profound emotion” - “Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe”. And to be fair … the infectiously energetic and charmingly nonchalant diction of the British-Laddie voice-over - is an endearing treat as well. (sincerely sorry to bust the bubble of due respectability for the issue in question)
The other day I drove my 12 year old son to school. Suddenly he asked me for no reason what in my opinion was the most beautiful song or music (not my personal favorite song!). I answered "Air on a G string" by Bach. I told him, that in my opinion, in the best case other pieces can be equal (though I don´t know any) but they can never be better.
Good video. Bach is gorgeous, deep, great. But please, it's not the prelude from Cello Sonata no. 1 but Cello Suite no. 1. The six Cello Suites are very famous and great music.
A fine summary. The last cello piece featured is my 11-year old daughter’s favourite piece of music. Bach’s music cuts through to the core of human reasoning and feeling with no need for any kind of intermediary. Fashion is devoid of importance or impact.
Bach, when alive and for a couple centuries afterwards, was thought of as an exceptional keyboard player. Nothing more. It was unthinkable even in the early 20th century that he could be considered amongst Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms. But every passing decade there were more listeners, more analysis of his work and now in the 21st century- he’s the unmistakable greatest ever. It’s probably not even that close too. Mind blowing.
beethoven reached bach in his late works. sonatas 29-32 especially 29 and 32 stand out. And in his last 3 pieces of the diabelli variations. in his last string quartett. But Bach is truly the master of them all
Thank you for making all the easy to understand yet professional & fun videos about classical music to a tone deaf/can't read music notes person like me! I'm self learning all the stuff even without an natural born musical talent & senses... LOL Your video is very educational & helpful, I've subscribed. Wish you all the best!
Bach is the father of modern western music beside his wonderful music he gave to all musicians the theory the the chord progression and many more in that sense he was a genius We love Bach
One problem Bach had in his day was that by the time he started composing, the Baroque era was already a hundred plus years old and beginning to be "old hat" music. There were beginning to be the early vestiges of classicism here and there which I'm sure sounded a bit fresher to the ear than the old somewhat mathematical Baroque. But Bach summarized the Baroque in his own unique way and just simply did it better than anyone before him. The cream rises to the top and eventually after the "oldness" of the Baroque had had time to cool a bit, he was thankfully "discovered" and the rest as the say is history.
J.S. Bach codified the harmonic system in use today. He made it understandable in the 2 sets of 24 preludes and fugues in the Well Tempered Clavichord. Each prelude and fugue is based on one of the 12 individual pitches within an octave. From there, he indeed produced some of the world's most glorious pieces of music, well over 1000 of them. What an immense musical gift he gave to the world!!❤❤❤❤
Nice summation! From what I was taught many decades ago, Bach didn't invent any new form or style of music - he gathered together all the existing styles and forms from all across Europe and created the platform which was the foundation on which all future music was based. That was genius!
I liked Bach coming up because his music translated well to the guitar. But really, it depends on where I'm at at any given time. What I mean is, I started with Bach because his stuff was my introduction to classical guitar and finger picking (I had a great teacher early on, who died far too young, man, could he pick, but I digress). Later, I got hooked on Ludwig and then I spent time jamming out to Mozart. I wrapped it up with Vivaldi I suppose. Now I just sort of bounce around depending on what I want. I find Bach to have a lyrical airy quality, same with Mozart. If I want to go majestic Beethoven is the guy. I don't have a GOAT when it comes to music, except the Beatles who were my first and made me fall in love with music to begin with. It's all about preference. One peek at my music collection will tell you how all over the place I can get, from Hank Williams, to Vivaldi, with a bit of Buddy Holly and Glen Miller for kicks. And of course the Fab Four. It always comes back to John, Paul, George and Ringo for me. But that's me. And at the end of the day, that really is the beauty of it isn't it? I used to hate the stuffy and artsy/fartsy crowd I came across when I was coming up. I never did have have much of a nose to look down from anyway so rock on Bach...rock on If he's your GOAT, you could do a helluva lot worse. 🤘
Whenever I listen to works such as "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem" (Mozart) I don't know if I'm more impressed by the fact someone was able to compose it, or that someone was actually able to perform it.
I believe you are missing the word "Herzen" from that title. Also, Mozart wrote it specifically for his cousin, tailored to her vocal range, so it's not that surprising. Still quite boring and bland music compared to Bach, though.
If you ever want to hear some absolutely filthy, gnarly yet gorgeous harmony, I recommend Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia in D minor. The fugue is good too, but for some really crunchy stuff, the fantasia is where it’s at. I also recommend the version for organ, the power alone is ethereal🫡
To some degree, Bach and Haydn and their contemporaries were beneficiaries of time. They came into music at a moment of instrumental development and harmonic development, coupled with a dearth of previously written music in the new idiom. So the field was wide open; virtually anything they might write had not been written previously. That’s not to say they weren’t geniuses. Certainly they earned the reverence we have for them hundreds of years later. To have such prodigious quantities of stunning quality output… amazing.
I'm a modern music guy, an odd meter fanatic and my favorite 20th-century composer is Stravinsky. But I fully concur with everybody on this thread that Johann Sebastian Bach was the greatest musical mind who ever lived (and may ever live).
Please, two minor faults should be corrected soon. Firstly, the rediscovery of Bachs St. Matthew Passion took part in 1829 (and not in 1845 like stated in 2:21), secondly: the quotation assigned to Bela Bartók is not correct. It was the argentine composer Maurizio Kagel who said this (4:22).
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren. Danke für diese wundervolle Reportage. Ich besitze ein originales Portrait von Johann Sebastian Bach in Öl aus dem Jahren um 1724 ,aus seiner Zeit in Köthen. Sollte die internationale Bach-Forschung oder Sammler Interesse daran haben, setzen Sie sich bitte mit mir hier in Verbindung. Danke !
Surrounded from the first moment of his life by an immense family of professional musicians, it would be easy to conclude that Bach's first and richly developed language was not German but music, which flowed from his mind and pen the way exquisite English came from the hand of Shakespeare.
The last piece portrayed belongs to the first cello suite. Suites differ from Sonatas in the way their movements are arranged. Greetings and great vid lml
It is rumoured that, when years ago he was asked about which role he would like to play in a non-action film, Arnold A. Schwarzenegger took the cigar out of his mouth and, without missing a beat, uttered the most legendary three-syllable answer ever.
I can easily imagine the world without some compsers, but I can never imagine how the world would have been without Bach.
but then a world with Bach is unimaginable he wouldn't inspire people to compose!
Bullshit. You're talking like Bach was the only composer of the baroque era. Erase Bach off the map and we will have the same musical canon.
@@papaoxd I don't think so, because Bach influenced every composer after him, maybe without him we wouldn't have a Mozart as we know, or Beethoven as we know today, I may be wrong tho lol.
@@lokmen__ Bach wasn't the only composer Mozart and Beethoven studied.
@@lokmen__ Mozart was mainly influenced by Haydn's works and the court of Mannheim rules and counterpoint treatment.
Bach: Your favorite composers favorite composer
Then Bach favorite composer is Bach
Unless it’s pre bach, or maybe bach himself (assuming he was modest)
@@ItzBotz Bach's favourite musician was God by the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
@@jaikee9477 Fuck you, I'm not even talking about religion
@@ItzBotz LOL. Bach loved numerous composers, according to his son, C.P.E. Bach's recollection.
Bach believed music was meant for the glory of God. King David said in the psalms to play skillfully and Bach seems to have taken it to heart. He seemed to have an innate intimate knowledge of every instrument he wrote for. The way he used different instruments in each cello suite ending with the viocello demonstrates this masterfully. The more I listen to him the more I am convinced it is the greatest music ever composed by a man.
Very true! It actually started with King David. Luther translated the bible some 2000 years later, rediscovered David's psalms and that we should sing and make music to the glory of God. Then Luther wrote his famous hymns. Roughly 150 years later Bach studied all of Luther's works and the rest is history.
In a nutshell: King David > Luther > Bach > Mozart to Beethoven, etc. > Chopin to Wagner, etc. > Modern Music.
@@jaikee9477 you’re glossing over Gregorian chant and renaissance polyphony. They are the foundations which baroque music is built upon.
@dejuren First of all, I really like the term "Godlover", I shall use it to describe myself more often. Second of all, we claim him because we have him, and any attempt to steal him will be an uphill battle. No simple exaltation of the human mind could result in the passions or the cantatas
@@DerPinguim oh but don’t you know, according to the wokery all the bad in the world is the fault of white Christian heterosexual men, from slavery and famines to climate change and social injustice 🙄 How does the greatest Genius the world will ever see dare to be a devoted Christian, a family Man, a sexually normal one, and white on top on that!!! How dare He?!?!?! Only evil and horrible things must come from “white” Christian culture, how dare you claiming otherwise! 🤣🤣🤣
Like I told some other tool around here, the second more ridiculous thing that they do after trying to tarnish Bach’s sublime body of Work and beliefs is trying to outwoke one another with their infantile, uneducated and nonsensical claims.
It is truly as hysterical as it is surreal. That’s modern ‘education’, the future seems to be in good hands 😂
@@DerPinguim Very well stated. As Bach himself said, “All music should be for the glory of God and the edification of the soul.” Or, something close to that, as I recall.
He had 20 children. Some died early. Just imagine being this productive while having to deal with the noise of these. He had only small places to compose his music. He made money to barely feed his family. He did much teaching while composing. He joined an event to compete with Marchand, who was well known back then. Marchand was very self confident to challenge all composers of his time, he thought none understands music better than him. But the day before the event he heard Bach improvising some Cembalo. Marchand literally left the city to not embarrass himself.There is much more to tell about Bach.
true bach was very humble tho and devoted each piece to god
Yes ,
It's a funny little story but they currently thinking it's not true.
Kids are like Tamagotchis, they'll die if you forget to feed or clean them. Maybe that's why he did twenty of them and kept being productive
20 children + up to 100 students + 3 ensembles (70-80 musicians+singers). On top of that he wrote one cantata per week for 3 whole years. Bach basically ran a family business which had to fulfill a contract he signed with the city council to provide music and education - easily the busiest composer in history.
And all that sex
When I was a teenager I was into
rock music. My friend's father had a classical record collection. One afternoon we pulled out one at random to play. It was the Brandenburg concertos, and the first one was number two. We were both blown away by it, and to this day it is still my favorite piece of music ever! Ive loved bach for decades since!
It was also sent to space by Voyager spacecraft.
Why do you have to put whooshing noises in when you make screen transitions? It’s distracting. Please don’t do that.
I kinda imagine how that was, I was really into metal until I listened the andante from the fourth brandenburg concerto, until that day I have never heard even a 10% of what music was capable of doing, it was like realizing for the first time that this is just a planet in a galaxy filled with millions like it in a cosmos that is filled with millions of galaxies
The sheer volume of works, composed while knowing at his time, that they would never be performed again, but with such craftsmanship, is just amazing.
Yeah, it was very clear that he wasn’t doing it for fame, but instead, according to his own words, for the grace of God.
I always said that the greatest contribution of the church to humankind is the art it inspires
The most overrated composer of all time.
Like most of baroque composers.
The sheer volume that still exists.... and the sheer volume that was lost ...
Bach organ works are miraculous , makes me cry from the amount of emotions in it
Toccata and fugue in d minor....simply wow!
@@jayanthony3006 and many many many more
@@tahaouhabi3520Try the bwv 564 especially the incredible toccata 🔥🔥
@@Bwv1046 I love it ! That pedal solo is miraculous, no other composer can come up with such amazing piece.
@@tahaouhabi3520 Yeah man for real
But I'm pretty sure that Beethoven and mozart can 😅
I agree; Bach is at the top. However, Baroque music, in general, is the most consistent and valuable form of music.
*I enter the chat*
@Nastro Adhesivo true. he's criminally underrated. his cello sonatas and mandolin concertos are so good.
Very much agreed. Baroque in general is the superior musical form.
@ericlopez6866 It's not a form, it's a style. But anyway, it really is a ridiculous statement: the amount of musical forces that were regularly moved during the late-romantic and modern periods of classical music make the average baroque piece a pale resemblance of the same art. And surely there were some composers well ahead and beyond their time, like Bach and especially Mozart, but still a quite good composer for his era like Saint-Saëns completely annihilates another one of the baroque period like Buxtehude
@@pe-peron8441 A thesaurus comes in handy sometimes to prevent making a fool of yourself. Call it what you will make any comparisons you like, Baroque is still the best.
Bach is to music as Newton is to physics.
Closer to Einstein
Surak
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 As a physicist and musician, definitely more like Newton.
@@declandougan7243 why?
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 His pious dedication to god, the way his abilities and contributions far outstripped his contemporaries in a way Einstein never did, the forward thinking attitude about the long future and legacy ahead, the huge body of work, their connections to royalty, and the way they inexplicably appeared so early in the development of their respective fields, unparalleled for generations. We worship at the shrine of Newton in physics today the same way as we treat Bach, Einstein doesn’t get that treatment, given that he lived at the same time as incomparable physicists like Paul Dirac and Niels Bohr.
Bach was the one who got me into classical music, in my early twenties. Back then, I was listening to Death Metal and Aliencore etc.
Would have never guessed it before that, but the beauty of the music just pulled me in and then there was no way back.
Although my favorite composer as of today, is Beethoven, I'd still put Bach on top, of being the most influential composer.
For pure harpsichord or cantatas, I'd always choose Bach.
For dramatic Symphonies (With the exception of Mozart's 40th), Lieder (Schubert deserves a spot in this category alongside Beethoven) and beautiful String Quartets, I'd choose Beethoven.
For joyful and happy piano works, as well as operas, I'd choose Mozart.
The list can go on, Chopin for beautiful, yet complex, Nocturnes and Etudes. Liszt for completely crazy piano pieces, as well as really interesting harmonic elements (e.g. his use of the Hungarian Minor Scale).
Agreed! Bach totally resonates with metalheads!
Why does every one think mozart is the most happy?
@@dlelllfkdlelel5459 please elaborate on why you DONT consider him happy lmao
@@antoniotabacu5911 there are also soo many pieces which are very sad and in minor.
But yeah he had a funny personality.
Bach wasn't even close to the most influential composer. His influence is vastly overrated/overstated.
I generally shy away from hyperbole, like the greatest who ever lived, but Bach may well be one of the few exceptions.
Indeed. Nowhere else can such a blatant, indisputable supremacy be so firmly stated.
@@JB-cp3bh ravel solos
@@vitamingetranke7326 not even close
@@JB-cp3bh Gaspard de la nuit and miroirs both far exceed anything bach ever wrote in terms of both complexity and beauty
Very good idea to stay away from GOAT statements, without exception. They are always bullshit.
A two minute snippet of Bach could be a modern pop song.
*two second
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215there is a one second clip of Clair de lune that me and my friend are pretty sure inspired an entire legend of Zelda song
@@spleen866 what second?
Bach's partitas for solo violin are works from other world. I love it endlessly
Completely agree, especially Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor.
@@Musicienne-DAB1995 This!!!!
Sometimes I put put on a classical playlist and something will come up that really piques my interest and it’s almost always Bach. And every time I’m like “This is Bach, too?!”
I heard a tape with Bach's organ works in 1994 and I used it as a background to studying. One day I turned my head and I asked myself:"what is this?" And the more I listened the more I liked it. It was one of the few moments in my life I felt shivers listening to music. Bach isn't just music for adults, Bach is music for musicians ❤️
First of all Bach isn’t background music.
@@Claude_vanwhy not? If you read the post it's what got them interested in Bach
It is pretty telling that humanity as a whole needed a hundred years to appreciate him but giants as Mozart and Beethoven understood his greatness right away.
Beethoven making a wordplay with Bachs name ("Bach" meaning small stream or brook in german) once said:
"Not Bach, but ocean he should have been named for his infinite, inexhaustible richness in tone combinations and harmonies"
Beethoven certainly admired Bach but the composer he admired most was probably Handel.
@@nickrr5234 Yes. And Bach was a huge fan of Handel too!
I've felt that the long public indifference to Bach says a lot about the pointlessness of many aspects of music discussion. All the music acts of today that get dismissively brushed aside might eventually be recognized as great music. I doubt that many will, but it's still possible!
only when my daughter started learning violin on higher level that I began to appreciate Bach... I have now close to a dozen recordings of his violin sonatas and partitas and each player gave me totally different experience... his music touched people's souls in different ways
When I was in high school our music teacher played the class a recording of the Brandenburg concerto No. 1. I felt like I was hearing music for the first time. I've loved the music of Bach ever since. I enjoy listening to all kinds of music from the earliest of early music, to jazz, classical, pop. But if I could only take one type of music with me to a desert island it would be the music of J.S. Bach. No competition. There is so much in his music that it can reveal something new with each new hearing of it. He was such a gifted man and his music is wonderful.
Bach's music is the only one that penetrates to the depths of the soul and the heart, Surely, God has given him his reward
you think Beethoven's late quartets don't penetrate the depths of the soul?
Only one? That's only your opinion.
bach is the best he is so cool words cannot express this man
Bach is the composer that every piano student at any level studies regularly, and the keyboard works conceived for harpsichord and clavichord are not even his most important works, great as they are. Bach was not the first great master, but it almost seems that he was because every major composer after him was influenced profoundly by his works. There is no other composer, not even Beethoven, whose soul encompasses as vast a space as Bach’s.
Well, _The Art of Fugue_ is arguably his most important work, and was written for keyboard.
@@hoon_sol It’s interesting that you bring up this work. Although it wasn’t specifically written for any instrument, it can be, and is, played on organ, harpsichord, and now, piano. I don’t tend to think of it as a specifically keyboard work, given the notation of parts in separate clefs, unlike the works for harpsichord. Still, your observation definitely gives weight to his use of the keyboard in his greatest works extending beyond the vocal genres, which were probably the most important to the composer.
The Well-Tempered Clavier is sometimes called "The Old Testament of keyboard playing" for a reason. It's that influential. And like most keyboard players, I've been chipping away at it for 25 years and still finding new nuances and moments that make my theory brain go "How the heck does that work?"
Why do you say "not even Beethoven" hah, as if Beethoven was a particularly shiny example
@@pe-peron8441 As an example of a soul who encompasses a vast space, yes, Beethoven shines very bright indeed. Very few musicians would dispute that!
Bach is truly the God of music. Lesser men bow before him. I've been listening to him since my early 20s and I STILL find new stuff that just blows my mind when I first hear it. This guy just had an almost infinite encyclopedia of just brilliant sounds swimming in his head, which he wrote all down before it scattered to the winds of his mind. (While teaching teenage boys AND conducting orchestras AND being the leading organist of his town AND being forced to write one cantata a week AND siring and raising 20 children AND living with all of that in a small house on a rather meagre income. The stress of all of this didn't overwhelm Bach--he just kept composing like a boss until he keeled over!) Thankfully he didn't die prematurely like so many musical geniuses. The result--over 1,000 works of breathtaking sonority and complexity. I have yet to hear something bad from this guy. Bach's the real deal, the Big Enchilada of sound.
"In November of 1705, the twenty-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach was granted leave from his post at Arnstadt to journey some 200 miles to Lübeck in order to “learn one thing and another about his art” from famed organist Dieterich Buxtehude." That sums it up to me.
Thank you for this video! His music 🎶 is truly something else. Otherworldly, indeed! His is my favorite composer and his music 🎼 like a gift 🎁 from Heaven to all humanity! Again, thank you 🙏 and May God bless you and your loved ones!
Great video. Well said. I have listened to Bach almost every day for the last 33 years and am still amazed, challenged and regularly brought to tears.
Never tire of Bach. Endlessly fascinating
The second you put the Double violin concerto there i got goosebumps and tears came to my eyes... so yeah, Bach is the ultimate G.O.A.T
Every single composition he made can be transposed to any other key and instrument and it will sound great.
Bach is the greatest! His music is just an. entire space, out of this world.
I think one way is to put it is he created the musical universe
I think until now I've been afraid of the beauty of classical music. It could overwhelm a person. But I'm slowly dipping my feet and getting in that pool forever.
Yup! When I was younger I liked big emotional composers like Berlioz. Older, I find a more profound emotion in Bach. He is everything.
Bach’s music saves my life everyday, thanks bach
To this day I play the first cello suite, BWV 1007, at least five days a week on my guitar. Plus about 30 more minutes of various Bach pieces. Thank You JS Bach. And thank You too Pablo Casals:)
You have to admit it, he was one of the first "BIG" masters to set the trend and the pace that developed into the music we have today. I could not, in my wildest nightmares, imagine my life without the music invented by this man and those Greats that came after him. What would the world be like without it?
Yes, if the history of composing just stopped after JS Bach, we still had everything that's important in music. He was a such universal genius. Nobody comes near to him.
His music has unbelievable variety. He is truly a singular outlier.
One lifetime is not enough to listen and absorb some of his music.
Fantastic video. Bach is simply a genius. I don’t think that can even be denied
I absolutely agree that Bach, Beethoven and Mozart are the three classical music masters that no listener can overlook, since their work has shaped irrevocably the genre and set the basis for numerous other composers, and I understand and praise the purpose of this video. Nevertheless, I still can't comprehend why so many people argue energetically as to who of them is the greatest, pointing such silly and void arguments, when they forget that music, like any other form of art, is not an exact science, and that much of their opinion is merely based on personal taste. There are so many other enormously influential composers that are often forgotten in such discussions: Palestrina, Monteverdi, Handel, Telemann, Haydn, Schubert, the list goes on. I think it's about time we, the listeners, leave all this bias behind and start appreciating music for what it is, not for which composer wrote it. There are people who will never like Bach, as much as there are those who will never like Beethoven: let's all come together and agree on how great and necessary classical music is. As long as this useless debate is dragged on, I don't see the genre getting rid of its elitism and inaccessibility to the wider public. Let's not make it too complex, and just follow the flow of music 🎵 Cheers 😁
my favorite part about bach is how all the different lines talk to each other, he does it so often and so trickily. One of the pieces you had in the video was wachet auf, and the first movement has so many times where the voices chase each other around. I'm glad you included actus tragicus too because that's actually a rather unusual one and much more modal (he wrote it when he was like 22), but it's still beautiful
Actus Tragicus is magnificent. In Wachet Auf, the way the soprano soars over the other voices gives me goosebumps every single time.
Fugues...very important in modern music
The greatest composition lesson I've ever discovered is the fact that Bach left parallel 5ths in his incomplete Art of Fugue. Giving this some thought reveals something quite simple about "how" he constructed his counterpoint. Glenn Gould points out " of course he would've corrected it given the chance", and therein lies the clue.
That's very interesting. I probably would've assumed that it was a case of breaking convention or simple pragmatism. The iron clad rules about parallel perfect consonances weren't as ironclad as we often think them to be now, as far as I know (of course they were ubiquitous practise, but there are examples of deliberate breach even from prominent musicians I think). Do you point to him making a sort of rough draft intended for revisions or what do you reference with Goulds quote?
I play the violin but lack theory and can’t understand this but it’s intriguing
One can find parallel fifths here and there throughout his works. The "rule" forbidding such a thing is hogwash and indicative of a shallow pedagogy where teachers don't want to take the time to properly teach the use of parallel fifths. It is rare, because of the intervals strength, which can bring too much attention, but when it is used carefully it works fine.
@@M_SC probably musical snobs needing to feel clever
@@keithparker1346 maybe some people are clever and like to talk about clever things
I had the great good fortune to start listening to and playing Bach as a young child. What a blessing.
I am convinced that the Lord opened the mind of J S Bach to give us a small glimpse of what Heaven is going to be like!
Merci et bravo. Bach; le génie de tous les génies! Montréal, Québec
He’s the best and fully deserves to be known as such, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. I’ve learned SO much from him that I wouldn’t even know where to start.
I myself cannot decide Beethoven and Bach.. Both musical giants.
I am a simple organ player that like to play music of Bach. I can not play these terrible Trio Sonatas but I can do a lot of Preludes/Fugues/Concertos and when playing these I get elevated, out of the world, only music in heavenly sound. After I'm done it takes several minutes to calm down and feeling gravity again. This is what Bach's music does to me and I love it.
JSB is the greatest of all time - his greatest works are the musical expression of mathematics as applied to the human condition. In a sense, his music is where math meets art, resulting in something of extraordinary beauty . Bach's music, more than that any other composer, captures the extreme highs and lows of the human condition and everything in between - which is odd because he compositions follow a very structured and methodical manner. It's as if he accessed the source code of all of human experience and then used that knowledge to write his music. It makes one question his doubts regarding divine intervention! Surely his music is a huge step up from the LOSER TRASH music of Drake and the like in our time!
I absolutely concur - and that was wonderful testimony for the greatest composer
Agree with everything you said. Bach is by all means and by every stretch of imagination - the ONE.
Apart from your amazing skill to synthesise so intelligently, so witty and precise … such a “god-like creature” … I’m sincerely impressed by how utterly moving some of your contemplations are … I mean really :
“greatest teacher” - “… took a while to be appreciated” - “the influence is incalculable” - “not just a musical genius, but a master of expressiveness” - “bach didn’t write opera’s, but he never needed to” - “a profound study of human spirituality, the human condition, a contemplation of death” - “Bach is a composer you keep coming back to” - “Whenever you hear him again, he keeps getting better” - “no other composer has a musical mind as profound and accomplished” - Bewildering complexity” - “the most intense and profound emotion” - “Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe”.
And to be fair … the infectiously energetic and charmingly nonchalant diction of the British-Laddie voice-over - is an endearing treat as well. (sincerely sorry to bust the bubble of due respectability for the issue in question)
If they ever do a list of 50 most influential persons to Rock Music, JS Bach would definitely be on that list because so many artists used his work.
The other day I drove my 12 year old son to school. Suddenly he asked me for no reason what in my opinion was the most beautiful song or music (not my personal favorite song!). I answered "Air on a G string" by Bach. I told him, that in my opinion, in the best case other pieces can be equal (though I don´t know any) but they can never be better.
I love that in the "Get Bach" album cover joke, its three images of Bach and then just Ringo. I love it.
Good video. Bach is gorgeous, deep, great. But please, it's not the prelude from Cello Sonata no. 1 but Cello Suite no. 1. The six Cello Suites are very famous and great music.
I've been involved in pop music from the start, that is, until Switched On Bach came out. It opened my mind and heart to all sorts of classical music.
What is the name of the piece starting at 4:20
It's from the Goldberg Variations.
Love this! Fantastic work!
And they recently proved mathematically why Bach is a genius and has such profound perception with his music by people.
Wow where can I read about that
@@lucaklein6334I red it in a news site on internet.
Do not remember which one apologies.
I think you would be able to google it!
A fine summary. The last cello piece featured is my 11-year old daughter’s favourite piece of music. Bach’s music cuts through to the core of human reasoning and feeling with no need for any kind of intermediary. Fashion is devoid of importance or impact.
Fantastic. Thank you so much. Such a shame this man's music for the People is somehow not heard by the People.
When the angels frolic amongst themselves they play Mozart, but in worship of their God they play Bach
“Bach teaches you what it’s like to be the universe!” 🤯
You sir, got a subscription from me ! Can't wait the next videos.
Bach was so underrated for his time it’s sad how he didn’t get to listen to a lot of his music live
4:32 is exactly what I like Bach for. Don't know much else of Bach exactly, but that cello piece is amazingly good.
Bach, when alive and for a couple centuries afterwards, was thought of as an exceptional keyboard player. Nothing more.
It was unthinkable even in the early 20th century that he could be considered amongst Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms.
But every passing decade there were more listeners, more analysis of his work and now in the 21st century- he’s the unmistakable greatest ever. It’s probably not even that close too. Mind blowing.
That is a lovely tribute. His music has always thrilled and moved me, but I didn't know a lot of those details. Thank you.
beethoven reached bach in his late works. sonatas 29-32 especially 29 and 32 stand out. And in his last 3 pieces of the diabelli variations. in his last string quartett. But Bach is truly the master of them all
Back has something that just clicks with me
the performances you found are all great and my favourites in youtube
Thank you for making all the easy to understand yet professional & fun videos about classical music to a tone deaf/can't read music notes person like me!
I'm self learning all the stuff even without an natural born musical talent & senses... LOL
Your video is very educational & helpful, I've subscribed.
Wish you all the best!
Bach had the voice and mind of God in his pen.
I just love his music so much... music for introverts...
27 children all composers ... every day another masterpiece arises by itself
Bach is the father of modern western music beside his wonderful music he gave to all musicians the theory the the chord progression and many more in that sense he was a genius We love Bach
My all-time favourite! He loved God and dedicated all of his music to His glory.
"gathering dust" is our destiny without this spiritual connection. Gloria deum
One problem Bach had in his day was that by the time he started composing, the Baroque era was already a hundred plus years old and beginning to be "old hat" music. There were beginning to be the early vestiges of classicism here and there which I'm sure sounded a bit fresher to the ear than the old somewhat mathematical Baroque. But Bach summarized the Baroque in his own unique way and just simply did it better than anyone before him. The cream rises to the top and eventually after the "oldness" of the Baroque had had time to cool a bit, he was thankfully "discovered" and the rest as the say is history.
In heaven, we get to listen to Bach all day long!
that st john passion excerpt is enough to make the point lol
J.S. Bach codified the harmonic system in use today. He made it understandable in the 2 sets of 24 preludes and fugues in the Well Tempered Clavichord. Each prelude and fugue is based on one of the 12 individual pitches within an octave. From there, he indeed produced some of the world's most glorious pieces of music, well over 1000
of them. What an immense musical gift he gave to the world!!❤❤❤❤
Nice summation! From what I was taught many decades ago, Bach didn't invent any new form or style of music - he gathered together all the existing styles and forms from all across Europe and created the platform which was the foundation on which all future music was based. That was genius!
Beautiful! Thank you!
I liked Bach coming up because his music translated well to the guitar. But really, it depends on where I'm at at any given time. What I mean is, I started with Bach because his stuff was my introduction to classical guitar and finger picking (I had a great teacher early on, who died far too young, man, could he pick, but I digress).
Later, I got hooked on Ludwig and then I spent time jamming out to Mozart. I wrapped it up with Vivaldi I suppose. Now I just sort of bounce around depending on what I want. I find Bach to have a lyrical airy quality, same with Mozart. If I want to go majestic Beethoven is the guy. I don't have a GOAT when it comes to music, except the Beatles who were my first and made me fall in love with music to begin with.
It's all about preference. One peek at my music collection will tell you how all over the place I can get, from Hank Williams, to Vivaldi, with a bit of Buddy Holly and Glen Miller for kicks. And of course the Fab Four. It always comes back to John, Paul, George and Ringo for me. But that's me. And at the end of the day, that really is the beauty of it isn't it? I used to hate the stuffy and artsy/fartsy crowd I came across when I was coming up. I never did have have much of a nose to look down from anyway so rock on Bach...rock on If he's your GOAT, you could do a helluva lot worse. 🤘
Whenever I listen to works such as "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem" (Mozart) I don't know if I'm more impressed by the fact someone was able to compose it, or that someone was actually able to perform it.
I believe you are missing the word "Herzen" from that title. Also, Mozart wrote it specifically for his cousin, tailored to her vocal range, so it's not that surprising.
Still quite boring and bland music compared to Bach, though.
If you ever want to hear some absolutely filthy, gnarly yet gorgeous harmony, I recommend Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia in D minor. The fugue is good too, but for some really crunchy stuff, the fantasia is where it’s at. I also recommend the version for organ, the power alone is ethereal🫡
To some degree, Bach and Haydn and their contemporaries were beneficiaries of time. They came into music at a moment of instrumental development and harmonic development, coupled with a dearth of previously written music in the new idiom. So the field was wide open; virtually anything they might write had not been written previously. That’s not to say they weren’t geniuses. Certainly they earned the reverence we have for them hundreds of years later. To have such prodigious quantities of stunning quality output… amazing.
Also, Bach had a big family network and access to almost everything available at his time.
Did not know that quote by Douglas Adams, well put. 🤖 resistance is futile 🤖
I'm a modern music guy, an odd meter fanatic and my favorite 20th-century composer is Stravinsky. But I fully concur with everybody on this thread that Johann Sebastian Bach was the greatest musical mind who ever lived (and may ever live).
Bach is, OK, a forever treasure, now l got it, for later on composers, he's just like a big bank any one can borrow some from him legally.
Please, two minor faults should be corrected soon. Firstly, the rediscovery of Bachs St. Matthew Passion took part in 1829 (and not in 1845 like stated in 2:21), secondly: the quotation assigned to Bela Bartók is not correct. It was the argentine composer Maurizio Kagel who said this (4:22).
A lot of composers let you hear and/or see, but J.S. Bach lets you FEEL his music.
Bach was the greatest because he never wrote his music for man, but for the glory of God.
Great presentation
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren. Danke für diese wundervolle Reportage.
Ich besitze ein originales Portrait von Johann Sebastian Bach in Öl aus dem Jahren um 1724 ,aus seiner Zeit in Köthen.
Sollte die internationale Bach-Forschung oder Sammler Interesse daran haben, setzen Sie sich bitte mit mir hier in Verbindung. Danke !
Surrounded from the first moment of his life by an immense family of professional musicians, it would be easy to conclude that Bach's first and richly developed language was not German but music, which flowed from his mind and pen the way exquisite English came from the hand of Shakespeare.
The last piece portrayed belongs to the first cello suite. Suites differ from Sonatas in the way their movements are arranged. Greetings and great vid lml
It is rumoured that, when years ago he was asked about which role he would like to play in a non-action film, Arnold A. Schwarzenegger took the cigar out of his mouth and, without missing a beat, uttered the most legendary three-syllable answer ever.
Very clever
A terminator with great taste he was.
😂😂🤞🏼👏🏼
Goat comment.😂😂
Hehe
0:36 JOHANNESPASSION MENTIONED